Finance Globe

Tax identity theft is growing in the United States. In fact, 43% of identity theft complaints received by the FTC in 2012 were related to tax fraud. The IRS received close to 940,000 fraudulent tax returns in 2012 (for the 2011 tax year) compared to only 242,124 in 2011. They expect the number to reach 1 million for the 2012 tax year. Thieves don’t need a lot of personal information to commit tax id theft. Just...

Rewards credit card offers have ramped up this year, with many credit card issuers offering better rewards than ever before. The Capital One Venture Card, for example, pays 2% cash back on purchases. Discover it Card pays 5% on quarterly rotating categories and 1% on everything else. And the American Express Blue Cash Preferred pays 6% cashback on groceries, 3% on gas and department stores, and 1% on everything else. Those are just a few of...

There are many bad credit cards out there, some of the worst contenders are those that target people with bad credit. Even with bad credit, there’s one credit card, you should definitely stay away from: the First Premier Bank Credit Card. What’s so bad about this credit card? It’s expensive. Too expensive. Before you get the credit card, you’ll have to pay a one-time $95 processing fee before the account is opened, just to get the...

Despite the high interest rate and borrowing costs, payday loans are attractive to so many borrowers because they don’t have as rigorous of an approval process as regular loans. In fact, all you usually need to get a payday loan is your driver’s license, a recent paystub, and a blank check. Since there are no credit checks, you can get a payday loan no matter what type of credit score you have or what negative items...

Dealing with financial problems can be tough, especially when it comes to credit card. Monthly payments, balances, due dates, past due balances, and collection calls can be very stressful. It’s hard not to worry about credit cards, but the key to relieving your stress is to figure out how you can start solving your problems. Don’t ignore your credit cards. If you just neglect your credit cards, the problems will only get worse. Right now you...

If you’ve ever ordered a “free” credit report or credit score, you’re likely already familiar with trial subscriptions. But, the credit reporting industry isn’t the only place where this scheme is used. Numerous companies bait you into subscribing to their service by offering a free trial. The hope is that you’ll either like the service and continue using it (and of course, paying) or you’ll forget to cancel your trial and still end up paying. Here’s...

The IRS tax refund tracker tool has become so popular for people expecting a tax refund that the IRS has put out a notice asking taxpayers to limit their inquiries to no more than once per day. As more returns come in, the IRS said it is experiencing high traffic on “Where’s My Refund?” at irs.gov. The large large traffic volume is expected to limit the availability of the tool on both the website and the...

In this week’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama recommended the minimum wage be incrementally increased to $9.00 per hour and be tied to the inflation rate after that. Having the Federal minimum wage indexed to inflation would help make sure that employees are paid a wage that keeps up with increased cost of living. All workers can benefit from increased minimum wage. Generally, other wages move up when the Federal minimum wage goes...

If you find an erroneous charge on your credit card or bank statement, you have the right to dispute it with your credit or debit card issuer, as long as you do it within 60 days. There’s no charge for you to dispute and you can even avoid paying interest on disputed credit card charges while the issue is being investigated. Banks, however, have to spend time investigating the dispute, contacting the merchant, deciding if the...

American Tax Relief, a company who purported to reduce consumer’s tax debt, has been ordered to pay more than $15 million to the FTC for deceiving consumers. As their name implies, American Tax Relief sold tax debt relief services to consumers. The FTC filed charges against the company for making false claims about significant reductions in previous customers’ tax debts and also for falsely telling consumers they qualified for programs that would lower their tax debt....